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Robots at Work and Play

Advancements in robotics are continually taking place in the fields of space exploration, health care, public safety, entertainment, defense, and more. These machines -- some fully autonomous, some requiring human input -- extend our grasp, enhance our capabilities, and travel as our surrogates to places too dangerous for us to go. NASA currently has dozens of robotic missions underway, with satellites now in orbit around our moon and four planets -- and two more on the way to Ceres and Pluto. Gathered here are recent images of robots and those who work with them.

Technicians monitor the MIS (Inspection Machine in Service) robot, which inspects the inside of the reactor's tank during programmed servicing and maintenance at the Bugey nuclear power plant in Saint-Vulbas, near Lyon, France, on April 19, 2011.
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U.S. President Barack Obama steps in to prevent a small robot from falling off a table during a demonstration of robotics at Miami Central Senior High School on March 4, 2011. Obama visited the school with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Education Secretary Arne Duncan for an event on the future of education funding.
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HRP-4C, a five-foot humanoid robot developed at Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, sings and dances with performers at the Digital Contents Expo in Tokyo on October 17, 2010. The robot runs entertainment software called Choreonoid, a name formed from the words "choreograph" and "humanoid."
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Professor Cesare Santanini from the engineering high school Sant'Anna in Pontedera, Italy, displays a lamprey-like robot at the Engineering-Ecole des Mines in Nantes, France, during a bionic robots workshop on April 7, 2011.
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An X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator completes its first flight at Edwards Air Force Base, California, in this U.S. Navy photo dated February 4, 2011. The demonstration program will establish the capability of an autonomous, low-observable unmanned aircraft to perform aircraft carrier launches and recoveries.
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A robot produced by the electrical engineering department of the National Taiwan University mimics human facial expressions at the Taipei International Robot Show on October 19, 2010. The yet-to-be-named robot, which consists of a life-sized head and torso, was designed to show basic emotions for a more interactive experience.
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A remote-controlled robot called Packbot opens a door inside the crippled Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima, Japan, on April 17, 2011. The robot's capabilities include maneuvering through buildings, taking images, and measuring radiation levels.
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When Israeli entrepreneur Amit Goffer was paralyzed in a car crash in 1997, he began a quest to help other victims walk again. He invented an alternative to the wheelchair: robotic "pants" that use sensors and motors to allow paralyzed patients to stand, walk and even climb stairs. "ReWalk," a device that helps paralyzed patients stand and walk, is displayed on an office chair in the northern Israeli town of Yokneam on November 18, 2010.
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The fingers of Hao Liu, Professor of Biomechanical Engineering at Japan's Chiba University, hold a bionic hummingbird at the International Workshop on Bio-Inspired Robots in Nantes, France, on April 7, 2011. Some 200 bio-robot technicians from 17 countries participated in the three-day event, displaying robots inspired by the animal world.
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A robotic dinosaur is put through its paces as Nick Snyder, left, and Michael Olson, right, observe its movements on August 19, 2010. The dinosaur is part of a stage show called Walking With Dinosaurs at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage, Alaska.
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NASA engineers display the Mars rover Curiosity at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, on April 4, 2011. Curiosity is scheduled to be launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in the fall of 2011, and land on Mars in August 2012.
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A hand lens imager is mounted on the arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, on April 4, 2011. The imager will take extreme close-up pictures of the planet's rocks and soil, as well as any ice it may find there.
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A mannequin's dilated eye is revealed during a demonstration at the Clinical Simulation Lab at Ivy Tech Community College in Columbus, Indiana, on February 23, 2011. Computerized mannequins are being used more and more often to augment training with live subjects in medicine and safety-related education.
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At the Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis on September 1, 2010, physical therapist Ryan Cardinal watches six-year-old Anna Good walk in a Hocoma Lokomat lower-extremity robot. The hospital's Robotic Rehabilitation Center is using robots to help youngsters with cerebral palsy and other movement disorders improve the use of their arms and legs.
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A bi-rotor micro helicopter from the Marseille National Center for Scientific Research is displayed at the Bionic Robots Workshop at the Engineering-Ecole des Mines in Nantes, France, on April 7, 2011.
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Computer scientist Sebastian Bartsch directs a Space Climber -- a free-climbing robot designed to scale the inclines of extraterrestrial craters -- at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence in Bremen on November 22, 2010.
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A bomb-disposal robot inspects a jacket containing a pipe bomb near the Al-Hamra checkpoint in the northern Jordan Valley on March 25, 2011. An Israeli army spokesperson said soldiers discovered four pipe bombs on two Palestinian men, both of whom were arrested.
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At the NTT Research and Development Forum in Tokyo on February 22, 2011, a staff member tickles the ear of a robot to demonstrate "tactile illusions" -- simulations of ticklishness relayed by sound signals.
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A bomb squad robot in Huron, Ohio, carries a suspicious object through the Kalahari Resort parking lot on April 14, 2011. Authorities later concluded that the item was a child's abandoned science project.
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Hailey Daniswicz, a sophomore at Northwestern University in Chicago, flexes muscles in her thigh as electrodes instruct a computer avatar to flex its knee and ankle on April 13, 2011. Daniswicz, who her lost her lower leg to bone cancer 12 years ago, is training the computer to recognize slight movements in her thigh so she can eventually be fitted with a bionic leg: a robotic prosthesis she can control with her own nerves and muscles.
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In this U.S. Air Force photo dated March 30, 2010, the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle taxis on the flightline during testing. The X-37B is a 29-foot unmanned robotic spacecraft designed to reenter Earth's atmosphere intact. The vehicle spent 220 days in orbit during its first mission, returning on December 3, 2010.
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A robot is piloted off the field after throwing out a ceremonial first pitch before a baseball game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday, April 20, 2011, in Philadelphia.
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Student Jeremy Schafer takes part in a Lego robot competition at the Lincoln Community Center in Mankato, Minnesota on December 4, 2010. Students used laptops to program wheeled robots to complete scored objectives.
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